Disadvantages

Although the performance benefits of ATM are great, some aspects are keeping it from being utilized more often. For example, the cost of ATM devices is quite high. The typical ATM network interface card costs more than ten times than a typical Ethernet NIC. As a result, the use of ATM is commonly restricted to large businesses rather than personal use.

Systems using ATM can become quite complex, and because it is not as widely used as other protocols, support for these systems can be more difficult to obtain. Some networks are deemed public and others private, each having its own addressing mechanism. In order to connect the two types, additional bridging hardware becomes necessary. Broadcasting cells in ATM is also quite complex because each cell has a set destination.

Perhaps the biggest concern, though, is the reliability of ATM networks. Cells having a set path to their destination has its advantages, but if that path is somehow broken (for example, a switch goes down), no other path exists for the cell to travel to that location.

As ATM is used more frequently, the defined standards evolve. These standards can change quite rapidly and hardware must be made that can easily be upgraded to adhere to these new standards.